New Forum Questions, Answers, Feedback, and things that make you go, "Hmmmmm"

Noobz347

Stangnet Facilities Maint Tech... Er... Janitor
Admin Dude
Jan 4, 1985
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Box behind Walmart
If here for the info and don't want to read my blather, just press on to the FAQ in the next post. :p

I've been chasing a LOT of threads since the switch to Xenforo and I help where I can but I'm sure that I'm not catching them all.

So at the Suggestion of DocG2828, I will be making this a FAQ thread to help folks find and navigate the various features of the new forum. Some (not all) of the things that people have problems with or are missing, are actually here already but in a different location/form.

So I will try to update this as we go and post fixes for the things that we change to accommodate members.

The next post will be for a FAQ (that will evolve as we add to it) and the one after will be for fixes/alterations that have been made to make the forum more usable/better.

If you're here just to complain that you don't like it, you're in the wrong thread. If you have examples and genuine feedback however, we're all ears and I'll attempt to either find you and answer or a work-around or a fix, if it's in the best interest of majority of users and MRaburn OK's the alteration.

Keep in mind that there may suggestions that are far more reaching for the OVERALL forum than just that one thing that you're looking at. There is definitely a Butterfly Effect potential for changing seemingly small items within a forum.
 
FAQ:

Here's the first...
Many have commented that they have to preform MORE steps to navigate through sub-forums than they did in VB.

No you don't. This little icon here is your friend! It's the QUICK NAVIGATION MENU. It's pretty slick so try it out.

There's this one at the top and there's a another at the bottom of the forum.

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MARKING FORUMS READ
This is a pretty big forum. I'm sure their aren't many folks who are interested in every thread in it. If you've not been on in a while, click on the COMMUNITY tab at the top of the forum. Click on MARK FORUMS READ. Your WHAT'S NEW listing will now be more pertinent and you can keep up with updated threads that you're wither following or participating in. This in No Way Prevents you from visiting and seeing your favorite stomping grounds but if you're a site wide participant, this is pretty useful.

Also:

When you log into Stangnet, you will see two lists. The top list is for threads that have changed since your last visit. Below that list are all the threads that were unread by you before (i.e. you didn't read them the last time you logged on either).

Generally, here's how I use this feature:

When I log on I click on WHAT'S NEW. I view those threads that have changed that I'm interested in. Once I'm done with that, I click on COMMUNITY and MARK ALL FORUMS READ. This way, the list is current and I'm not trudging through a large list of threads that I will never read. In other words... this feature works a lot better if you 'clean house' once in a while. :)

SKIN SELECTION
Don't like the color of the forum? Change it. There are two user selectable skins to choose from. The default skin BLUEMOON and a dark skin DARKBLUEMOON.

Scroll to the bottom of your screen and you will see it on the left side:
Just click it. A pop-up window will show with the selections.
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I'D LIKE TO CALL A FRIEND
You're participating in a thread that you'd like your buddy to see or you'd like to draw the attention of someone who you think knows the answer or is interested (for any reason).
Simply put an @ sign in front of their User Name. They will receive an alert directing them to thread where you placed it.
Example:
MRaburn likes the idea of having a FAQ to help highlight the features of the new forum. DocG2828 came up with the idea.

You need not use it in a sentence or anything. Just place it somewhere in your text.

Noobz347

KEEPING TABS ON PERSONS OF INTEREST
Want to keep up with new products from your favorite sponsors?
That LaserSVT guy really cracks me up. I wanna see what he's up to.

You can do all of that and more.

Click on their AVATAR. In the pop-up menu click FOLLOW.
The next day when you log on? You want to see what LaserSVT has been doing?
Click on your USER INTERFACE tab at the top right of the screen. Click on PEOPLE YOU FOLLOW.
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The rest should be self-explanatory.


MEDIA - VIDEOS - SOUND CLIPS - OH MY! :rock:
Checkout http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/2200/userinterfaced.jpg

On the right hand side are the categories for the media section. You can post them from just about any video/audio hosting website you can think of (not FTPs). Want to just browse? That works too! PM Noobz347 if you have ideas for new topics in the media section. It's just gotten started so feedback is always welcome! :)

GET UPDATES FOR YOUR FAVORITE FORUMS
This is a new feature. It will send you a brief index update of activity for the forums that you choose. At the top, right hand side, of the forum that you're viewing you will see this:
forumwatch.jpg


Click WATCH FORUM and updates will be sent to the email address that you specified when you signed up for StangNet.
 

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FIXES


One thing I DO miss is being able to go to one spot and see if the sub-forums have been updated. That was kind of cool. Other than that, this ain't so bad.

I do NOT understand this statement. I've seen it a couple of times and there are in fact, two ways to do this.

1. When you are done browsing SN for the the day, click on MARK FORUMS READ. When you log back on, go to the top of the COMMUNITY forum. If you're not sure where that is, click here: http://www.stangnet.com/mustang-forums/

All forums that are in BOLD are forums that have changed since the last time you visited.

--0r--

2. Don't do any of the above. Instead, click on WHAT'S NEW: http://www.stangnet.com/mustang-forums/find-new/threads

There, you will find each and every post up to the last time you clicked on MARK FORUMS READ. There is even a separator to indicate which threads were updated since the last time you visited. You can select WHAT'S NEW from the navigation line under COMMUNITY or from the QUICK NAVIGATION MENU.

So depending on your preference and how you want to operate, there are options. In a nut shell... The user has a lot more control over how the interface acts where with VB you got what it gave you.

I think I'll add this to the FAQ in the feedback forum. Lemme know how it works out for ya D.
 
RESPONSES TO ASKED QUESTIONS AND UPDATES

Unable to Multi-Quote from multiple pages
This is a known problem and is in work. Will be moved to FIXES post when it's done.

IS THE GENERAL FONT USER SELECTABLE?
No. The size and font are preselected and are chosen to work well for the vast majority of users. If you find that the text is too small for your tastes, try holding down your LEFT CTRL key and scroll UP one or two clicks and see if that works for you.
 
Can the font be changed to Arial, or any other for that matter, not only in my post, but so everything I view is in Arial?
No. The general font is not user selectable. What is it you don't like about the current font?
It blends together too much and is not as legible as Arial, especially when you have mild dislexia :D
I'll keep an eye out to see if others have the same kind of issue. I know that not too long ago, I changed the font and font size to make the thread material differ from the text in signatures. So far the feedback has been positive until you. :p
 
VibrantRedGT

I can't say as I've ever given that sort of thing any consideration before. I looked at the forum you linked and can't decide if if it lends itself to being cleaner or if it just adds clutter. Part of the indecision is because I think their skins are terrible. Let me look into it a bit and see what all would be necessary to get the forum to put a separator under just the stickies. The best way to tell would be to try it and see.

Since the stickies are not a constant, they must include some sort of argument for the position of the separator bar.... which (comma) gives me the idea that an even cleaner look might be to slightly change the background color of the sticky threads. That might give the separation you like and maybe an even more streamlined look.
 
I guess the cleaner look is up to the individual user. In the new configuration the only way to tell if its a sticky is the picture of the tack. Like in 5.0 Talk for example, there are 4 or 5 sticky's, you have to scroll down a bit, decided which is the first thread in line by that tack (unless you know the sticky's by heart). That bar in my eyes makes it easier to determine where the first thread starts and separates the sticky's.
 
VibrantRedGT

Yep... I definitely think you're onto something here. I went in and reviewed The Squeeky Wheel. It has a decent number of stickies. I don't (or didn't) notice it as much because like you, are just used to seeing them there. So I like the idea. Now all I have to do is figure out how to implement so that it fits us.

The hardest part is going to be figuring out how Xenforo sees and recognizes stickies. I'm sure that it does but I'm not aware of how it does it. Gonna have to do some research.


In other news: Vibrant... are you able to select skins other than BlueMoon and DarkBlueMoon?
 
Noobz347

I only have Dark Moon and Blue Moon choices. Why, there are more choices? I use Blue Moon because if someone posts in a color and I'm using Dark Moon I can't see it. In fact Durden is posting in red now I just noticed, I bet that's hard to see in Dark Moon. Don't know if JRicher is still posting in colors but he usually does.
 
Noobz347

I only have Dark Moon and Blue Moon choices. Why, there are more choices? I use Blue Moon because if someone posts in a color and I'm using Dark Moon I can't see it. In fact Durden is posting in red now I just noticed, I bet that's hard to see in Dark Moon. Don't know if JRicher is still posting in colors but he usually does.


Let me see if I can put you into into mty test skin and you can tool around and critique. It's a work in progress where I make all of my mistakes before changing the official skins.

Don't be alarmed. LOL
 
Noobz347

What does everyone think about eliminating some of the sub forums? For example those sub forums that get no movement. Tuning comes to mind. Another is the 6 sub forums in Community, put everything back into the Squeaky Wheel this way everyone is in there creating more traffic. Its the way it once was and booming at the time. Personally I find myself going in and out of sub forums all day. It could be easily cut down to browsing say 3 forums instead of 12.

Also in VB at the bottom right there was a drop down box which was basically a way to move from one section to another. It made jumping around really quick. I noticed this is gone now with the new format. Anyway we can get that back?
 
Noobz347

What does everyone think about eliminating some of the sub forums? For example those sub forums that get no movement. Tuning comes to mind. Another is the 6 sub forums in Community, put everything back into the Squeaky Wheel this way everyone is in there creating more traffic. Its the way it once was and booming at the time. Personally I find myself going in and out of sub forums all day. It could be easily cut down to browsing say 3 forums instead of 12.

Also in VB at the bottom right there was a drop down box which was basically a way to move from one section to another. It made jumping around really quick. I noticed this is gone now with the new format. Anyway we can get that back?


Hold off on that Vibrant...

We've been looking at adding selectable SUBJECT TABS to threads.

That alone will allow us to make searching and sorting, a TON easier and should allow us to pare down the sub-forums.

In other words... it's a project in work. :)
 
Understood. I only mentioned it because of the thread in Squeaky Wheel about the forums being dead. Obviously the reason is sub forums and where people are posting interesting subjects. Sometimes you don't know where to go because of the numerous choices, then there is the task to enter all the forums which can be tedious. I can see you have something that needs to be addressed first, I get it.